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SALT LAKE CITY — A new book about the life of Jesus Christ is stirring up controversy, but not because of its claims. The controversy is propelling the book "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth" to the top of best-seller lists and thrust its author into the spotlight on several fronts.
In a July 26 online interview, Fox News religion reporter Lauren Green turned her focus not to the book's content, but to author Reza Aslan's Muslim faith, launching a volley of media attacks and counter-attacks.
In the interview, Green pointedly — and repeatedly — asks Aslan why he would write a book about Jesus since he is Muslim.
Among his answers: "It’s not that I’m some Muslim writing about Jesus. … I am a historian," and, "I’m not sure what my faith has to do with my 20 years of study of the New Testament."
My hope is this image of a celestial detached spirit with no interest in the world that has arisen about Jesus over the last 2,000 years will be seen as incomplete. We will instead look at Jesus in the world as a deeply political revolutionary figure, radically so, who took on the powers of his time and lost.
–Reza Aslan
The Fox interview has been called "embarrassing," "cringe-worthy," "ignorant" and, now, "infamous." The online video quickly went viral, providing not only an immediate boost to the book's sales, but fueling the flames of controversy about the interview, the author and the book itself.
Aslan attempts to paint a different historical picture of Jesus and the world he lived in: The central claim in "Zealot" is that Jesus was not born in Bethlehem and "was hardly God-like," according to TODAY contributor Scott Stump.
In a subsequent interview, Aslan told NBC News, "What little we know about (Jesus) paints him as really an illiterate peasant from the backwoods of Galilee. This man was able to gather people to him not because of his education but because of his charisma, because of the power of his message."
In a Q&A with the Boston Globe's Michael Fitzgerald, Aslan said, "My hope is this image of a celestial detached spirit with no interest in the world that has arisen about Jesus over the last 2,000 years will be seen as incomplete. We will instead look at Jesus in the world as a deeply political revolutionary figure, radically so, who took on the powers of his time and lost."
Many critics, however, say that Aslan has not drawn his conclusions from history but "simply created his own version of Jesus," according to USA Today's Bob Smietana, who quotes the Rev. John Ortberg as saying, "There's very little evidence that Jesus has a radically different teaching than what the early church believed. I think it is difficult to argue that Jesus saw himself as a political zealot messiah."
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Muslim student finds Mormon BYU faith-affirming
Like many students at Brigham Young University-Idaho, Schada Alkamari felt spiritually drawn to the religious university. But the Moroccan citizen didn't enroll to immerse herself in the Mormon faith. She came to BYU-Idaho, which is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to reaffirm her own religious beliefs.In the Washington Post, Stephen Prothero argues, "Aslan is more a storyteller here than a historian" who doesn't bring "much new here other than [his] slick writing and cinematic sensibilities." He concludes, "In the end, 'Zealot' offers readers not the historical Jesus but a Jesus for our place and time — an American Jesus for the 21st century."
But the main storyline of this controversy remains Green's line of questioning, demanding to know why a Muslim would be interested in the founder of Christianity. As Daniel Politi of Slate said, "Green insisted, accusing (Aslan) of failing to 'disclose' that he’s a Muslim and at one point asking him about a stupefying claim on whether a Muslim writing a book on Jesus isn’t sort of like a Democrat writing a book on former president Ronald Reagan."
"Green's main thrust is that it's somehow wrong for Aslan, a non-Christian, to discuss Jesus," writes The Atlantic's David A. Graham, who makes a further point: "I find myself wishing he'd flipped the argument around on Green: After all, isn't any Christian too hopelessly biased to write a serious book on Jesus? … Aslan might also have mentioned the many non-Muslims who have written books about Muhammad and Islam."
But the controversy hasn't seemed to faze Aslan, who told NBC News, "For any writer or thinker to have inadvertently launched such a public discussion is about the best thing you can hope for."
